Hiatt puts experience in his songs

Preview

On the liner notes to his new album, The Open Road, veteran singer-songwriter John Hiatt alludes to making the music at "Highway 61 Recording, Tanning and Barbecue."

That's a unique trifecta, but when the recording studio is actually a converted garage at home, it turns out you can toss in as many extras as you want.

"You have to diversify these days," says Hiatt, 57, who performs Wednesday at the Plaza Theatre in Orlando. "When you're out in the rural areas, you have to do more than one thing. It's one-stop shopping."

When it comes to the new music, however, Hiatt sticks close to his roots in blues and country. The 11 songs are built on a solid foundation of percolating rhythms, greasy slide guitar and evocative wordplay delivered in Hiatt's distinctive twangy style.

After four decades in the business, it's just the second album that he has recorded in his home studio. Formerly a garage, it once housed the race cars he has tinkered with over the years at his farm about 30 minutes outside Nashville, Tenn. In the spirit of a shade-tree mechanic, he decided to handle production duty himself, too.

"It's learn as you earn," he says of his expertise behind the boards. "I've spent the last 30 years sort of gathering up a bunch of old gear and stuff, and I've spent all these years making records and peering over engineers' shoulders, learning from producers.

"I figured it was time and I've been having a great time doing it. It's not rocket science. I didn't really do much with it."

The understated approach works well on songs such as "Wonder of Love" and the easy-rolling "Fireball Roberts," named after the seminal NASCAR icon who perished in a fiery crash in 1964. Like much of Hiatt's material, The Open Road revolves around a batch of memorable characters.

In the opening verse of "Wonder of Love," we're introduced to the lovelorn hero starting the day with "the other half of last night's cigar," a couple of Pop Tarts and a cold cup of coffee: "That's a fine new start."

Hiatt chuckles at the question of the origin of these people.

"I have actually smoked half of last night's cigar, so I know something about that," he says. "And I remember when the kids ate them damn Pop Tarts for breakfast. It's sort of like found art. You save these pieces of things. A guy that does that kind of art, well, some people might call him a hoarder, but really he has a purpose."

On a roll, Hiatt stumbles into answering the age-old songwriter's question: What comes first, the words or the music?

"The thing that shakes it loose for me is a piece of music. If there's a piece of music I dig, then it's ‘We gotta have some lyrics for this.' Where's it going? Your guess is as good as mine."

That approach has worked well enough to sustain a career that has earned Hiatt critical acclaim, even if his songs are sometimes better known than his name. Bonnie Raitt had the hit with Hiatt's "Thing Called Love," and other songs have been covered by everyone from Iggy Pop to Three Dog Night and the Neville Brothers.

"It doesn't get any easier," Hiatt says of songwriting, "but I just don't worry about it."

He likes the new songs because they are tailor-made for playing live with his economically constructed touring band — guitarist Doug Lancio, bassist Patrick O'Hearn and drummer Kenneth Blevins. The same musicians recorded the studio versions.

On stage, Hiatt sees a benefit to longevity:

"It's like a reduction of a French sauce. There's less of it, but it's more delicious. When you're a kid, you think all you've got is time. When you're 57, you know it's gonna run out."